Project update - latest - Spring 2007

Winter 2006 - 2007 in the Russian Far East was characterized by a large number of lonely tiger cubs found in taiga and comparatively numerous cases of conflicts between tigers and local people. There may be different reasons for this, including a very harsh winter with heavy snow, lack of ungulates (prey) in the area due to over-hunting by people and perhaps weakness or injury of certain tigers.

On November 15 last year, Mr. Sidorov, a villager from the Khabarovsky region, found a weak tiger cub on the roadside of a federal highway. No adult tigress could be found and the poor cub was so emaciated that it did not even try to escape when being lifted into the vehicle. The man sheltered the tiger at home and quite rightly reported it to our Inspection Tiger officers. Our remit is to protect rare and endangered animals and plants, for example, tigers and leopards, from poachers and saving orphaned animals that are unable survive alone in the taiga forest.

Examination concluded that the cub was about 4-6 months old but so malnourished it was horribly weak with un-glossy hair and hollow sides. It had a graze on its neck, one canine broken, eyes running and it practically could not move. Its big sad eyes were evidence of much suffering. The animal was transported to Far Eastern Zoo Garden for intensive veterinary treatment where the little female, which they nicknamed 'Rigma' soon started to respond to treatment and recovery. She is now able to eat by herself and expresses herself with vocal roaring. The Moscow authorities will decide Rigma's destiny, which will undoubtedly be one of Russia's zoos, as she has now had far too much contact with people and would almost certainly be unable to hunt for herself. It is almost certain that Rigma's mother was killed by poachers, which unfortunately it is not rare in Ussuri forest.

In early December in Primorsky region a tigress got her revenge on drivers of timber logging trucks who had probably knocked down her cub killing it on the road. The furious predator stalked the convoys and Inspection Tiger officers strongly recommended a different route or at least not to stop along this stretch. Interrogation revealed that the truckers confirmed they had seen the tigress dragging her dead cub with her.

In January 2007 Amur tigers kept countrymen of Primorye in fear of their lives. Inspection Tiger officers were visiting the villages in the districts of Kirovsky, Chernigovsky and Dalnerechensky and learned that lack of food was forcing tigers to attack domestic dogs in the villagers own backyards. Driven by hunger, the tigers are being forced to take great risks and this was tragically illustrated when on January 23 in Primorye, a bus from Khabarovsk to Dalnegorsk ran into a three year old tigress killing this beautiful rare animal.

February was a busy month! At the beginning of the month another cub was found. The hunter who discovered the helpless creature took it to the "Utyos" rehabilitation center for wild animals close to Khabarovsk city where it was operated on. Vets removed two toes from its paw, which had been caught in a trap. This four month old female, whose mother was almost certainly poached, soon started to recover and was named 'Lapka' meaning little paw.

Inspection Tiger officers received permission to catch a tigress stealing dogs in Chernigovka village in Primorski Krai. The tigress had been coming to the village over the last two winters as local people had killed most of the prey in the area. She was spotted this last winter with her cub who was later chased back in to the taiga from the village of Rettikhovka where he was hunting independently. Despite a week of tracking the officers had to move on but will be back to try and catch the tigress to avoid future conflicts. If captured there will only be three possible options for her future; relocation to the north far from human settlements, putting to sleep, or a zoo.

On February 19, lumbermen found two more tiny cubs - possibly just 2-3 months old - near a river in Chuguevsky district. They were weak and exhausted but had not lost their predator instincts as one of the rescuers received a bite when trying to catch them to take them to Utyos. Deputy chief if Inspection Tiger Vitaly Starostin claims that the tigers found themselves on a logging road because of heavy snowfalls. It is difficult for animals to survive snow, ungulates come close to the roads and tigers follow them. The tigress was almost certainly dead or she never would have left her cubs. They remain in critical condition but everything is being done to help them recover.

Another cub was not so lucky - reported to the Khabarovsky team of Inspection Tiger - they took the pathetic little creature to the zoological garden in Khabarovsk but tragically it was too weak and failed to respond to treatment and died a couple days later.

A forester living in Melnichnoye village was nearly attacked by a tiger whilst trying to protect his large dogs who had been torn to shreds and badly injured by the hungry predator. The man escaped by climbing a narrow tree trunk, thus saving his life, but not without leaving him with a deep scar on his thigh.

This worrying trend of tigresses being poached and killed, often leaving cubs to die or taken from the wild to save them, will undoubtedly influence very negatively the reproductive rate of this critically endangered species.

Since the birth of Inspection Tiger in 1994, the anti-poaching activities and investigation/resolution of conflict tiger cases have been funded by a number of local and international NGOs. DSWF is one of the principal supporters, together with Save the Tiger Fund, Zoological Society of London, IFAW and many more. Locally it is Phoenix that advocates Inspection Tiger, assists in fundraising and operates the education, awareness and outreach programmes.

Every little contribution helps wildlife and remember 100% of your donation will go in full to the project - thank you!

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photos - loggers and ranger team Mark Carwardine